Wanted: Good homes for former Whistler sled dogs

TIFFANY CRAWFORD, VANCOUVER SUN07.16.2013

People across the province were outraged by the news of 56 sled dogs culled in April 2010 after demand dropped following the Olympic Games.

People attend the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals burial service of remembrance for 56 sled dogs south of Penticton, B.C. on Friday November 2, 2012. B.C. SPCA officials hope the ceremony will bring closure more than two years after international condemnation of the April 2010 slaughter of animals belonging to Whistler-based Howling Dog Tours.Jeff Bassett
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Flowers are placed at the site of B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals burial service of remembrance for 56 sled dogs south of Penticton, B.C. on Friday November 2, 2012. B.C. SPCA officials hope the ceremony will bring closure more than two years after international condemnation of the April 2010 slaughter of animals belonging to Whistler-based Howling Dog Tours.Jeff Bassett
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

People attend the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals burial service of remembrance for 56 sled dogs south of Penticton, B.C. on Friday November 2, 2012. B.C. SPCA officials hope the ceremony will bring closure more than two years after international condemnation of the April 2010 slaughter of animals belonging to Whistler-based Howling Dog Tours.Jeff Bassett
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

WHISTLER - A non-profit Whistler company that took in the surviving sled dogs after 56 dogs were slaughtered three years ago is looking for homes for the dogs.

Sue Eckersley, a volunteer board member of the Sled Dog Foundation, which established The Whistler Sled Dog Co. to protect the remaining sled dogs, said after consideration the company felt it was in the best interest of the dogs to find them homes with caring people.

She said the company has enough finances to continue caring for the remaining 86 dogs, but added that it cannot maintain a viable dogsledding business and has decided to shut down.

She said the company doesn’t make enough money over the four months of operation in the winter to give the dogs the care they require over the whole year.

“We were scraping by,” she said, adding that some of the dogs are older and have been traumatized from the ordeal and need specialized care.

One of the five-year-old dogs has arthritis, said Eckersley. “That just should not happen,” she said.

Eckersley said the company is working with the BC SPCA and Whistler Animals Galore, an animal shelter located in Whistler, to find suitable homes with “patient and understanding” owners who want to adopt the aging sled dogs.

She said there is no time limit on finding the dogs a home and stated that they will not be killed if they can’t find owners.

“There’s just no way they will be euthanized. I will take the dogs into my own home before I let that happen,” she said.

The Whistler Sled Dog Co. had 187 dogs when it began operations in 2011, but over the last 19 months volunteers have placed 90 dogs with families in B.C.

The bodies of the 56 dogs were discovered in a mass grave near Whistler in late 2010 after details of the killings became public through a workers’ compensation claim of post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from the cull.

The man responsible for the cull, Robert Fawcett, pleaded guilty last August to causing unnecessary pain and suffering to animals and was eventually fined $1,500. He also received 200 hours of community service and three years of probation.

After the slaughter, the British Columbia government brought in new protections for sled dogs, establishing legal requirements pertaining to working conditions for animals, appropriate containment and euthanasia protocol.

Following public outrage over the cull, Fawcett and the company that bought his business, Outdoor Adventures, issued a statement in February 2011 saying that many of the dogs were old and sick and that efforts to have them adopted had been unsuccessful.

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